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Thursday, June 29, 2017

3 Anthology stories, and how they grew!

Hello lovely peoples!
I've been pretty busy this whole spring, but managed to write 3 stories for the VintageJane Austen story anthology, which released just shortly ago.
I have also been maintaining my monthly goals, (20k base goal, with Camp
NaNos of 30k and Nov. at 50) in spite of a lot of stress in real life, so
I've been feeling good about that.

One of the reasons I wrote 3 tales to submit for the anthology was I felt
stuck on the WIPs I *should* be working on, and so found the idea of
hopping though genres with an Austen template a fun one. ;-)

I started out to set a P&P in the 50's, but that
turned into a different Austen, and I was fine with that. The switch-a-roo
added a little flair to it, and I think it turned out cute.

Then the problem loomed large in my mind... how to set an Austen in
space? Sci-fi is greatly under represented in Austen retellings! J
After cogitating on that for a bit an answer leapt to mind, and I
had a great fun time slapping that one down. (I was a bit under the gun with
the last 2 tales, to finish in time and add their word count to my monthly
goal!)

Thirdly, I looked out the window of the new build and noted a bird
perched rather un-movingly on the edge of the dog's water trough, so I went out
to investigate. It turned out to be a female cardinal, who acted alarmingly
unresponsive to approach.
Since the dog's water trough is a highly unsafe place for a bird of that
size to hang out unresponsively, I carefully scooped her up and walked away
back into the pasture, where there is a massive brush pile where dozer-work
cleared the overgrown brush and trees to get it back to growing grass.

Anyway, on the walk up there I admired the remarkable little lady, and feel
quite enchanted of her perfect turn of feather, the way her muted tones looked
like burning flames of orange and red were glowing through the brown of her
more subtle coat. (Compared to her flamboyant male counterpart.) Since we'd
lived in the west where cardinals never seemed to be, I have been very excited
to spot the red males flashing about... but I'd never given the girls their due
respect.
That walk made an indelible impression on me, and when I carefully set
her on the highest gnarled root I could reach in the brush pile, she flitted
calmly even further up, and I knew she was safe. But I was forever changed.
I wanted to write something with a cardinal in it, and I wanted the
cardinal to be a pet.
I know real wild cardinals make terrible pets because they're simply not
wired that way, and to try to force them into that would just be cruel. But in
my imagination... how much fun would that be???

Oodles of fun, and the only place something can happen that can't happen
in RL... is my favorite place; fantasy worlds!!!
The idea seeped in my head, I turned it over and over like
rubbing a creek pebble between your fingers... and then the time had come to
writ. I painted it vividly, creating a sort of technicolor bright, classic
fantasy setting, wherein the cardinal got to be our heroine's pet and
companion, as the characters went about their Austen-inspired tale.

This story turned out the longest by far, and ended up being
placed near the end of the anthology; so if you pick it up and read through be
sure NOT to quit before you get there, because I want to hear what you thought
of the incorporated lady cardinal!!! :-)

(My only regret is I did not have enough time to work up a cute
little sketch of the cardinal for inclusion in the anthology. I'd have loved to
share the understated elegance she embodied.)

So!!! Have you read it? What did you think of all the stories... And
what did you think about mine? (You know I want to hear it!!!! :-)
)